Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/24

 14 SHORT NOTES AND QUERIES.

Xiphinm.'" It may be easily distinguished from that species by having the tube prolonged for an inch or more above the ovary. It flowers from February to April. Willkonira and Laiige report the plant from Alge- ciras, but it is by no means clear from their description whether it be what is here meant.

5. X. filifolium, Klatt; bulbo ovoidco membranaceo-tunicato, caule flexuoso ssepe bipedali 1-2-floro, foliis cauliuis 4-6 distichis falcatis an- gustissime linearibus, sursum filiforniibus, deorsum dorso semiteretibiis, spathæ valvis 3-4-uncialibus leviter ventricosis ad basin limbi attingenti- bus, pedicello ovario sequante, perianthii tubo subuticiaU, limbo 2^-3-un- ciali saturate purpureo, segmentis exterioribus anguste obovatis dimidio iuferiore sensim angustata, interioribus panduriformibus erectis distiucte brevioribus, stigmatibus cum cristis segmentis interioribus sequilongis et sequilatis. — X.fiUfvlium, Klatt, Linnaea, vol. xxiv. p. 571. Iris JiiifoUa, Boiss. Voy. Esp. p. 602. t. 170 ; Willk. et Lange, Prodr. Hisp. vol. i. p. 142.

Bulb ovoid, 12-15 lines thick; the outer coat prolonged up the base of the stem and maculate with red-brown. Stem 1^-2 feet high, erect, with 2-3 very narrow leaves laxly placed on each side ; the lowest 12-18 inches long, filiform upwards, not more than 1-g— 2 lines broad where they leave the stem. Spathe 3-4 inches long, slightly ventricose ; the valves 5-6 lines broad, reaching up to the base of the limb. Ovary and pedicel each 15-18 lines long. Tube an inch long above the ovary. Limb a bright deep violet, 2^-3 inches deep ; the outer divisions 8-9 lines broad, nar- rowed gradually from the middle to the base ; the inner erect, panduri- form, distinctly shorter, \ inch broad ; the stigmas as long as the inner divisions, ^ inch broad at the base of the crest.

Hab. Spain ; mountains of Granada at an altitude of 3000-4000 feet, and in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, Boissier, Keldart, Findlay ! lately introduced into English gardens by Mr. Geo. Maw.

This is a little-known species, beautifully figured by Boissier. It comes nearest the last, but difi"ers appreciably in the leaves and limb of the perianth. It is reported by Mr. Munby from Algeria, but is not the Oran plant which he intends by the name the last ? {To he continued.)

��SHORT NOTES AND QUERIES.

Queries. —Perhaps it may not be foreign to the design of the ' Journal of Botany ' if I suggest the introduction to its pages of queries. Difficulties, not to say problems, arise before all of us now and then, and when the query, with its solution from some one wiser than the querist, is of interest to botanists generally, it seems quite in order that it should be printed in these pages. I therefore submit several queries which I shall be glad to have answered, and in reciprocity I shall be equally glad to contribute what I may be able in the shape of replies to the questions of others.

1. Do the common Periwinkles, Viuca major and V. minor, ever ripen fruit in England ?

2. In the ' Botanical Eegister,' under Gratregm Oxyacantha, var. Olive- riann, the common Hawthorn is said to have a black-fruited variety in English woods ; where does this variety exist wild ?

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